The field of the disclosure relates generally to processing financial data, and more particularly, to a system and method that manages financial payments between parties.
Many known financial transactions occur with pre-existing processes and/or infrastructure. For example, payments between customers and merchants frequently include certain infrastructure such as point-of-sale terminals, electronic commerce stores, payment networks, banking systems, etc. These transactions may be referred to as “structured transactions.” However, there are other types of financial transactions that occur without any pre-existing processes or infrastructure. These other types of transactions are “less structured” in nature. Although these less structured transactions may occur less frequently than the structured transactions on a per-consumer basis, the less structured transactions still occur rather frequently across all consumers. For example, less structured transactions may include (i) less frequent exchanges of goods and services where the merchant does not have a typical point-of-sale device in communication with a payment network, (ii) transactions involving community or social activities, (iii) certain charitable donations, and (iv) settlement of purchases made by one party on behalf of another.
In contrast to person-to-business or business-to-business transactions, these less structured transactions frequently lack infrastructure to facilitate payment from a first party to a second party. As a result, the parties to these types of transactions (i.e., the first and second party) often require the use of cash or checks to complete such transactions. Although many interactions may be facilitated by cash or check, many individuals engaged in these types of transactions may wish to avoid the complexities of cash or check transactions. Accordingly, methods for enabling financial payments between parties may be desirable.